BENGALURU: In a first, Aviators Air Rescue airlifted a 25-year-old man from Ballari to Bengaluru on February 4 after he complained of difficulty in breathing following exposure to toxic gases.

The air ambulance startup offers the service on a subscription basis at present. The ambulance is available to an individual for Rs 9,000 a year and to a family of four for Rs 18,000 a year.

 

"Karnataka will need three such air ambulances in the future to cater to the rising demand of emergency medical services. I have been working on this idea for 10 years, and finally Airbus supported the concept," says Captain Arun Sharma, MD, Aviators Air Rescue.

 

"The air ambulance is quite expensive, the medical equipment fitted in it are of international standards certified by Indian and the European medical authorities," says Sharma.

"The ambulance, an Airbus H135, is equipped with 2,000 litres of oxygen, enough to ventilate a patient for over two hours, and usually takes an hour to cover 250km. It can handle emergencies like head and spinal injury, fracture and even cardiac patients. A doctor and a paramedic travel accompany the patient," Xavier Hay, president, Airbus Helicopters.

 

He says Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) is saving three lives every minute in cities across the word where it's available. In India, Bengaluru-headquartered Aviators Air Rescue operates in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

 

Airbus has also supplied an air ambulance for Katra in Jammu and Kashmir to handle emergency in the higher altitude religious destination. "India needs 700 to 1,000 such choppers per million of population in the future," Hay says.